Lily Evans and the Seeking Warlocks
by Dramanator
Summary: Lily Evans is a third year student of magic at Hogwarts School. This year she becomes close friends with James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Sirius Black through a dangerous encounter with some dark wizards in the forest. Dark wizards who want something in exchange for money and advanced magic lessons. Something they don't realize is in possession of one of the young Gryffindors...
1. Halloween

Lily Evans was a third year Gryffindor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was Halloween night of her third year at school when the young witch was observing her decorations on canvases with magical paint hanging for the Halloween feast.

Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor House, had noticed Lily's keen eye for art and asked her to help decorate the castle for one of Hogwarts' most celebrated holidays. Flattered, Lily sketched out many ideas between classes and finally decided what to paint- Hagrid's pumpkin patch, the owlery, and a skeleton dance party. Lily painted the canvases her favorite way- muggle style, but the magical paint allowed the creatures in the art work to move! The pictures were hung in the foyer outside the great hall. She ran to the foyer after her last class of the day, potions with Professor Slughorn, head of Slytherin House and Lily's favorite teacher. When she arrived at the foyer she stopped to see Headmaster Dumbledore admiring her paintings! What a warm feeling for Lily. She loved the headmaster and felt safe under his care and guidance. "What excellent work, Miss Evans!" the headmaster exclaimed, "Professor McGonagall tells me she's always spotting you painting some landscape on the grounds or in the castle. What brilliant creations." "Oh thank you, sir!" said Lily, "now that I'm a third year I can enjoy art class along with my academics and music lessons." "How are those going by the way?" asked the headmaster, "Do you love the piano?" "Oh yes sir, I do. And I hope I have room in my schedule next term to take muggle music and magical musical instruments. Both of those classes sound perfect for me." "I think so too, Lily! Music is the greatest of all magical arts." The headmaster nodded and walked into the great hall to prepare for the festivities.

Lily heard a loud crack coming from the dungeons. She was curious to know what the sound was, so she tip toed her way down the dungeon corridor. She heard echoes of a boy's voice in the hallway. As she came upon a corner, she peeked behind the wall to see who was there. She instantly recognized her fellow Gryffindors Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and James Potter. All of their robes were dirty and their hair messy. It looked like they were setting up some kind of trap. "What are you boys doing down here?" asked Lily in a loud whisper. "We're cursin' the corridor for the two Slytherin beaters!" exclaimed James like there weren't any professors for acres and acres of land. "You see Lily," he continued, "both of the beaters for Slytherin are also the house prefects. They'll be coming up to the great hall soon to help set up for tonight." Then Sirius spoke- "They'll be hurt for Saturday's match, the first of the season, which is against Gryffindor. That gives James a better chance to score hoops for our team! They'll have no protection from bludgers." On the ground beside Remus' feet, Lily spotted a book which Remus appeared to be hiding. "What's that book you've got there Lupin?" she asked. Remus nervously handed her the book. It was "_Fruhe Dark Magik" _by Bjorn Schadlich. "You're using the dark arts!" shouted Lily, triggering a look of panic among the boys' faces. "Lily please" pleaded Sirius. "It's not that harmful. Please don't tell." "But I must! This stuff is illegal. And you learned about it from a book in the restricted section. How did you get in there?" "We have ways" chuckled James. Lily gave the boys a stern look and they just stared back. Finally Remus spoke, "Lily please don't tell. This won't ever happen again. I will make sure." Lily hesitated and scanned them all again with her eyes before eventually nodding in agreement. "But still, you guys, your nonsense has to stop. You pick on innocent people and cause damage to the castle with your silly magic. Gryffindor's losing the house race partly because of the so called 'Marauders'" said Lily. "Our crimes harm nobody" said James, "we just do it for the fun and for the practice. You can't protect yourself if you don't know about the black magic that's out there."

The four students suddenly heard footsteps coming from lower in the dungeons. They ran upstairs and through the long hallway that leads to the front foyer of the castle. The boys skipped towards the main staircase and Gryffindor tower, but Lily stopped Remus and asked his to see her paintings for a minute. As they walked over to the embellished wall, Lily started to lecture, "You shouldn't do that stuff, Remus. You're a really good wizard. You don't want to go to the dark side." "They're my friends, Lily," he replied. "We have fun together. Like James said, it's harmless." "How can you say that when two prefects are at risk and so are you of getting caught! They're gonna figure out who it was! You shouldn't spend so much time with them. Your Ravenclaw friends are very nice; you should stick with them, and me, of course." Remus laughed and smiled as he gazed into lovely Lily's eyes. "See you at the feast tonight, Lily," said Remus before he slowly turned and walked towards the stairs to find his friends. Lily sighed and turned to glance into the great hall. The large room was decorated with Hagrid's jack-o-lanterns, ghosts dancing and dueling, bats flying across the bewitched ceiling, and at the high table stood Professors Dumbledore, dressed as a dragon, and Slughorn, dressed like a vampire. Lily herself wanted to take a short nap before the fun party tonight. After the feast, some third years plotted to sneak out and fly around the grounds and hopefully trek into the forbidden forest. A few fifth year students promised to help the third and fourth years by guiding them into the forest that night. It was her first act of rebellion and Lily Evans was excited. She strolled across the foyer and up the stairs headed for Gryffindor tower. On the way she spotted Sir Nicholas, the house ghost, and bellowed "Happy Halloween, Nick!"


	2. Sneaking Out

Lily awoke from her nap and changed into her robes. She grabbed her black pointed hat next to her pink flower bouquet on her dresser and stared into her full length mirror. She was eager to see her friends at the feast and had been looking forward to this night after a long week of classes. In Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall assigned the third years a writing prompt on the magical mechanisms of switching a teapot to a tortoise. And today in charms, Professor Flitwick introduced the spell Carpe Retractum with a research assignment on its use. Lily was starting to wonder whether she was able to attend the quidditch match this weekend. She might just have to spend her time in the library, where she would surely have to dodge books being thrown at her head by Peeves the pesky poltergeist. But Lily really wanted to see James fly on his broomstick. She combed her fingers through her hair as she pondered. He had been a natural since his first flying lesson and even made the house team as a third year. Tomorrow will be his first match. Severus Snape had already asked Lily to attend the game with him but she was now torn between him and going to the match with Remus and Sirius to cheer on James. She would decide in the morning…

Lily brushed her hair, put on her hat, then descended from her dorm to the common room. Only a few first years were still sitting by the fire and eating chocolate frogs. Everybody else was already heading to the Halloween festival. As she climbed through the portrait hole, Lily leapt in excitement for the night ahead. The feast was always a ball and she was attending her first unauthorized Hogwarts social outing afterwards. A nervous chill frosted through her body. In the silver atrium of Gryffindor tower, Lily spotted Sirius Black and his younger brother, Regulus, sitting on the floor and having an intense looking discussion. She wondered what they were so privately communicating, but of course did not want to be rude by asking. Regulus was a second year Slytherin. Lily didn't know much about Regulus except that she always saw him practicing defensive spells and zooming around on a broom last year. "Are you boys coming?" she asked. They stood up and walked with Lily to the front of the castle. They met Remus and James in front of the hall. They walked into the great hall to discover Irish music being played by local Hogsmeade musicians, many assortments of candy and cake on the four long tables, ghosts flying everywhere, and all the teachers dressed up. Lily exclaimed, "They didn't dress up last year! This is really funny!" The four young Gryffindors laughed at Slughorn's vampire costume, Hagrid's enormous crafted wings, and the divination teacher dressed as a gypsy.

Remus' draw dropped and he pointed towards the Slytherin table. "Look! Our curse didn't work! They were supposed to break out in major rashes, but they've only got a few patches of hair missing. What could we have done wrong?"

"You should be thankful it didn't work! That's very lucky for all of you" nagged Lily.

Lily discovered Severus sitting at the Syltherin table alone. He smiled and beckoned Lily over. She told Remus to save her a seat and walked over to the table. "Hello Severus" said Lily, "how are you?" "Splendid." "Oh, why's that?" she asked. "I've received all high marks for this week and quidditch starts tomorrow." "I didn't know you were so spirited," she said with a smirk. "I feel good," he responded. "Severus, I need to ask you about the hiccup treating potion that we have to turn in next week. I've been messing up so much with that." "It is not hard, Lily. You just have to use your instinct when mixing." "Well you have got more potion skills than I. I would really like your help." Severus sighed and replied, "In class, you didn't add the raw sugar and tea leaves quick enough after the juice began to vaporize. It matters." "So I should add them sooner, Sev?" "Yes. And guess what else; Slughorn is sending the high marking mixes to the nurse so she can treat hiccups. Everybody who gets their potion sent wins five house points. That's what I heard Slughorn telling his assistant." "Well Gryffindor had better watch out for Severus the potions master," Lily joked with a chuckle. Severus said nothing, but pulled out a brown paper box from his rucksack. "Lily this is for you," he said as he handed her the box. Lily smiled and opened the wrapping. Inside were three chocolate frogs and a 10 sickle coupon for Earl's Magical Shop in Hogsmeade. "Happy Halloween!" said Severus. "This is absolutely brilliant Severus. I can't believe you did this. You really should not have gone to the trouble." "Give it to somebody else than," replied Severus coldly. "Severus, please. Don't be a grumbler." "I go to great lengths for you and you don't even accept it." "Why do you always do this, Severus? It's stupid really." "I'm not the stupid one," said Snape. Without warning, a sudden wash of water dumped on to Severus from the ceiling. Lily looked up to see a bucket levitating below the enchanted ceiling above the table. Lily and Severus glanced to the other tables and saw Peter Pettigrew, a strange Gryffindor also in their class, laughing as he lowered the bucket with his wand. He was laughing along with a few older Gryffindors and Sirius at his Wingardium Leviosa prank. Dean Williams, the brown nosed Gryffindor prefect, stood up immediately and led Peter out of the hall. Severus, soaked, smacked over his pumpkin juice and marched out of the room. Lily was frozen at the table, but slowly stood up to return to Gryffindor.

Lily, James, Remus, and Sirius tried to forget about the mean prank Peter pulled and just enjoy the rest of the festivities. The Hogwarts choir was set to perform after dessert. Lily and Remus were both members of the choir and reported to the teacher's room behind the high table, as instructed yesterday by Sir Britten, the conductor. The choir sang two spooky tunes written by Sir Britten while Nearly Headless Nick led a dance of ghosts as the music echoed. Next was the costume contest, judged by Professor Slughorn and Madame Bell, the art teacher.

After the fun evening activities ended for the night and most of the students went to bed, Lily snuck to the Gryffindor atrium. The Marauders (minus Peter), Lily, and a Gryffindor, fifth year blonde witch named Amanda Diviner, were gathered outside the portrait of the Fat Lady. Amanda steered them towards a portrait in the main staircase, which was actually a secret passage to the grounds. They all crawled through the tight tunnel which opened to a roof, where they could climb down and meet the others at the quidditch pitch.

Once at the stadium, the Gryffindors found three older boys waiting, one from Slytherin and two from Hufflepuff. They looked cold and nervous. "Got the bottle?" asked Amanda. "Yeah," said the black haired guy, "we got it; let's go into the woods more." The kids walked to a patch of trees and sat in a circle on the ground. The black haired Slytherin pulled out a glass bottle and a silver goblet from under his green robes. "We put the pumpkin juice in the goblet and we can turn it into wine." He poured the contents of the bottle into the goblet and Amanda pulled out her long and crooked brown wand. She said some French incantation and tapped her wand on the cup. Then she reached into her robe and pulled out a flask. "This is herbal tea that you can only get at the Hog's Head around here. It makes you feel warm and relaxed. And when you mix it in with transfigured wine, it reacts to the alcohol and makes it much stronger." The eight teenagers sat in silence as Amanda mixed the tonic. A cool breeze erupted and the trees whistled. They all hugged themselves for warmth. Amanda finally took a swallow and passed the cup to her right. Everyone took about two gulps.

Lily became very content and saw the others just as euphoric as she was. Sirius started laughing and said, "Hey guys we should get drunk with Sevy Snape!" The others cackled and the black haired boy said, "That loser. No way. Ratuna Crief said he freaked out on her in the Slytherin common room for laughing too much and cursed her with a spell that gives you the flu. What a bloody damned awful thing to do." Remus added, "He's not friendly. He deserved what he got in the hall tonight." Lily couldn't help but object, "He's misunderstood you guys. I've known him since before Hogwarts. He revealed the magical world to me." She almost brought up the incident in the dungeon earlier that evening, but considering they were in the presence of a Slytherin, she didn't want to risk making her friends look bad. James, sitting to her left, turned to her, "Don't get your knickers in a twist, Lily. It was a harmless prank." Lily was hurt by the comment but she couldn't let the others see; and she couldn't contradict the popular James Potter. James, Gryffindor's best chaser. James, king of anecdotes and mischief.

The trees abruptly rustled and footsteps approached the lot. Everybody perked up and panicked. "Who is that?" Remus whispered. "What is that?" answered Amanda. The eight teens scattered and hid behind bushes and trees. Lily, beside James in a large shrub, peeked out and saw the friendly groundskeeper Rubeus Hagrid, and the mean, plump bartender from the Three Broomsticks, Avery Smith. Behind them was a tall black wizard with a large shadowy cloak, a pointy purple hat, and a thick mustache. The bald Avery lit his short wand with the Lumos charm.

The black, mysterious wizard spoke. "Alright Hagrid. We've waited far too long to talk about this. You're going to open your bloody fuckin mouth and tell us how they can get into the school. You don't have a choice. We've got assassins. They put us up to this and we're putting you up to telling us how to penetrate the castle walls."

"NEVER!" roared Hagrid. "I won' do it. Dumbledore knows me'd never betray Hogwarts!"

"You can't conceive what we can do to the precious forest animals, Hagrid" spat Avery. "Tom here knows animal control enchantments that will blow your balls."

"HAH! Those creatures u'd squash you flat in a jiff if you threaten 'em. You think them hippogriffs and werewolves will put up with you!? What do these scoundrels want anyway?"

Tom spoke again "These young men and women are hoping to penetrate the castle in search for the mystical Deathly Hallows."

"Yes" said Avery. "They think a student has one of the Hallows, and they're very determined to take it."


End file.
